ARYA

²² [ 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝗮𝗿𝗼𝗻 ]

  

[ 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝟭, 𝟮𝟬𝟲𝟯 ]

       Now having been through a couple losses, one thing I have noticed is that when another unfortunate loss is near, life feels really gloomy. I won't know who is on the verge, obviously, but the entire environment around me will feel trapped in time. Everything will be moving slow and everybody will be seemingly irritable. For a palace that is celebrating the birth of a new royal, Princess Avery, daughter of Natalia and her husband, Gabriel, things sure didn't seem very jolly. I have spent plenty time here helping out my daughter with diapers and baths. It has been a way of bonding between us, as our relationship was always mother to daughter. For once, it feels like we're equals. Friends. And as a present to my daughter for her first born's arrival, I allowed she and Gabriel to take titles from the country of Cape Verde. Therefore, Avery is the Duchess of Cape Verde, but Avery's mother decided to keep the Princess Royale title that she'd been given back when she was a little girl.

       Besides Avery's birth, my ruby jubilee was nearing and I was in as much disbelief as I shock. I know I say it every time some new event happens in my life, but I cannot fathom that I have been on the throne for four decades already. I can close my eyes and see my younger self still. I close my eyes and see Tyler at every single stage in his life. I still remember the little details of our wedding and coronation.

I sighed as I examined myself in the mirror, something that I do often nowadays. These last three years have been pivotal for Africa. With the LGBT movement gaining traction and gay marriage legalized, my approval ratings are nearly a clean sweep. My living son, Josiah, has since came out to the world and divorced Kathy. He was the first ever royal divorcee. I love Kathy, Josiah's ex-wife, and I don't want her to feel like she got thrown away by our family or something, so I allowed her the title of "Kathy, Lady of Uganda." That way, she can still reap the benefits of royal life. She and Josiah are still very close and I absolutely adore her for protecting my son in those years before his sexuality had come to light. As a mother, that is the kind of treatment that you could only dream of your kid receiving from the outside world.

Natalia, who got married last fall, is thirty-one. She will be thirty-two in October. Josiah is thirty-seven, and will be thirty-eight in December. I turn sixty this year and Tyler is already sixty-three. Armani is sixty-two and my nieces and nephews are climbing in age as well. Josiah, who is now married to Larry Kline, a Zimbabwean businessman, confided in me that he and Larry would like to adopt. He wanted to know if my adopted grandkids would be allowed royal titles. I told my son that I will willingly grant his kids titles, but unfortunately, they will be ineligible in terms of the line of succession to the throne, since they are not blood related to me.

       I traced my finger along the Bashaad Palace wall, looking at the "royal timeline"—something that'll be of intense interest two-hundred years from now, I assume. The timeline wasn't of Africa, but more like the monarchs and family that are leading Africa.